NPR & Urban Bears

The Irrational Fears blog has a brand new look! You should probably visit the site to get the full effect. A big thanks to my talented designer friends, Jana and Collin Cummings, for the beautiful design.

Also, this must be mentioned. NPR ran this article today and I did this post a while back. Coincidence or prophesy? You decide. All I have to say is that it's happening (sorry Collin).

Keep a wary eye on the Irrational Fears blog. I have a few new fears up my sleeve.

Mad Tea Party

Another piece for Ten Paces and Draw's artist swap. This one was especially fun for me. I can't help but love drawing/painting hair and decorative details. Check out all of the original sketches and other pieces here.

Not from Belgium

This is not a picture from Belgium. Just to clarify. It is a picture of a study I did in what my husband and I fondly call "the art cabin." Maybe sometime I'll post a picture of the beautifully wood-paneled walls that make "the art cabin" feel quite literally like a shack in the woods.

Anyway. This is my sister who kindly sat for me for two hours. Currently I'm practicing my oil painting skillz and working on a body of work to submit to galleries. During this particular session I was focusing on getting the "big squint" down, or in other words, getting the correct values while creating pathways for the lights and darks. It's not perfect, but I'm happy enough with it to post on the inter-webs.

And then I went to Belgium

Prepare yourself for a tragic story.

I spent the month of June in Belgium. (No, this is not the tragedy.)

I spent my days drawing and painting. I took lots of pictures of my drawings and paintings. I visited incredible museums. I took pictures of the incredible artwork there. I ate incredible food. I took pictures of the incredible food. Get the picture? (excuse the pun)

Then I came home. I procrastinated organizing my pictures and inviting my dearest friends to a slide-show event. A month or two past, and still those photos were left untouched. Unseen. And then, my computer was stolen as well as both, yes BOTH, of the hard drives which contained the backups on these lovely pictures.

And yes. Belgium was all but forgotten in the midst of the police reports, insurance adjustors, calls from  the detective and never-ending gathering of information. (Wait, that's all still happening...) UNTIL I acquired a new computer from a new company that I'm working for and now, finally, I have the courage and means to post what few pictures that remain from my month-long Belgian adventure. (Fortunately I'm paranoid -- for good reason, apparently -- about completely deleting my SLR's memory card, which means I have a handful of pictures left.)

So for the next several days I will be posting a few images here and there. (To be honest, I haven't even uploaded all of the pictures to this computer yet...) Today's post is a bit meager, but important none-the-less.

This is the still-life I spent the month painting. It is the unfinished version, but I wanted to post a picture of the painting actually in Belgium simply on principle (those damn thieves may steal my life/computer/hard-drives but they won't steal my spirit). I had just finished glazing the apple and was really loving the brilliant color it achieved. I still love it, and will post the finished version later. For now, glory in one of the only pictures that remains of my stay in Flanders. More to come.

Ten Paces & Draw

Last month I participated in Ten Paces and Draw's "artist swap." Basically they have a group of artists do pieces for a specific theme, BUT there's a catch: each artist submits a sketch and then is given someone else's sketch to illustrate. Kinda crazy right? Some crazy artist fun. Check out all of the sketches and finals here.

The theme was "Ancient Greek" and the sketch I was handed is based on the theory that the Ancient Greeks mythology about giants originated from a few Greek guys finding some dinosaur bones.

I'll be doing more of these artist swap things in the not-so-far-distant future, so keep a wary eye...

the birds

Once I was sitting on a beach in Seattle, when all of a sudden a flock of seagulls flew over my head and, while my head was turned, a seagull dropped a bomb right on my ankle...which also splattered on my pants and purse.

Gross.

I still like birds though. This piece proves it! It's a gift for my sister and still a work in progress but should be done soon.

brainstorming is hard work

sunshine and cough drops

How is it June already? More importantly, how is it that I have a cold when it's 80 degrees outside? Not ok; not ok at all. At least I can still draw.

Fighting boredom one drawing at a time

The other day I was bored, but instead of twiddling my thumbs and staring blankly into space, I pulled a few dying Prismacolor and Sharpie markers out of my bulging pencil case and went to work. It was really fun, especially the hair and shirt -- oh man, I love drawing hair and any sort of pattern. And aren't the colors pretty? That green is quite possibly one of my favorite colors around. 

Excited, excited!

Just wanted to share the thumbnails for a few pieces I'm working on and am really excited about. They're not my usual subjects...I think Mother's Day being around the corner had something to do with it. Soon they should be done and ready for your viewing pleasure. Until then, use your imaginations.

Breaking in the sketchbook

New sketchbooks are intimidating strangers. Their covers are smooth and pages blank, daring you to make that very first mark. Unlike those sketchbooks that are faithful companions for months, new sketchbooks don't hold any of your experiences, successes or frustrations. New sketchbooks are waiting to have their character decided by you. Intimidating. 

Or maybe I just think too much.

Either way, I finished my old sketchbook and bought a new one. As usual it's taken me a while to get going in it. For whatever reason the first few pages of my new sketchbooks get me into a rather frustrating "sketchbook block." Hopefully that ends soon.

These are a the first few pages of my new sketchbook and a few of the last pages from my old one, listed newest-oldest.

Wacom tablets are F-U-N

Last week I made an important purchase: I BOUGHT A WACOM TABLET! Hooray for technology! I've been wanting one for a while now and finally bit the bullet. Let me just say that bullet has been well worth it.

To celebrate, I drew the silly images above. They're a bit different than my normal style but I figured what the heck, why not branch out a bit? My personal favorite is the elephant. I couldn't help but giggle as I drew him.

Vote vote vote!!

Ok everyone. It's down to the last week of Round 2 for the Choose the Cover of the Rolling Stone Magazine contest, which means that FICTIONIST NEEDS YOUR VOTES! No idea what I'm talking about? Learn more here in a past blog post.


To vote, simply:

1. vote above or visit the Rolling Stone Contest website
2. listen to Fictionist's music and/or watch a couple of their music videos (my personal favorite is the last one listed on the video reel)
3. click on the number of stars you feel they deserve
4. like them on facebook and tweet about them

Easy right? Right. Now hop to it.

Painting party at my house

I have been procrastinating today for quite some time. This is mostly because, well, I simply haven't wanted to do the things that were on today's to-do list. What was today you ask? The answer is STUDIO HOUSEWORK DAY! Hooray...? This means that I:

1. Budgeted the studio monies. 

This is by far the worst thing about studio housework day. It simply takes much longer than it should to budget and plan monetary stuff when your right-brain has engulfed most of your already rather feeble left-brain.

2. Designed promotional mailers. 

Honestly I rather like doing this, it just takes time away from what I love most, which is painting/drawing. But thanks to self-discipline, you'll be seeing them soon Mr. Postman (or Ms. Postlady)

3. Worked on the new design for my currently rather simple, but functional, website. 

This also isn't really a terrible task; in fact it's rather satisfying to take something that already works and make it even better. I'm just so much more partial to working with my hands than a screen that the thought of designing for an extended period of time makes me feel a bit anxious.

4. Went to the gym.....

Wait; that's not technically studio housework...but let me just say that running 3 miles was very much necessary for the preservation of my already rather fragile sanity, especially after crunching numbers and sitting in front of a computer all day.

Today's outcome: Success, most definitely. 

My reward: a yummy apple fritter from my favorite local bakery + a "paint whatever I want" party. Happy studio housework day, Leslie. (It wasn't so bad.)

New Irrational Fear: Urban Bears

Urban bears?!! *gasp!* Visit the Irrational Fears Blog for the complete version...

Print Sale! 4 days left...

Looking for some snazzy artwork to spice up those bare walls? Look no further. I recently opened up a print shop online and am offering 20% off prints through Saturday the 26th! The current prints are shown below. 

 If you see something you like, simply:  

1. go to my etsy shop

2. choose a print

3. use coupon code OPENYAY3261 at checkout

Easy beasy! If there's a piece that isn't up there that you'd like a print of (maybe you saw it on my blog or website), then just email me at leslie@lesliedukeart.com and I'll get it up there in a jiffy.

Drawing a cow really isn't that hard.

On Saturday I got to hang out with my little cousin Lexi.  Every time she visits Lexi wants to break out the paper and colored pencils so we can draw and color together, which I personally think is fantastic.

First Lexi taught me how to draw a cow. Can you tell which one is hers and which one is mine? Apparently drawing a cow is one of the easiest things ever to draw (or so I was told). Thanks to Lexi I am now a qualified cow-drawing teacher, so if anyone needs lessons just let me know.

After drawing a couple of cows, we moved on to paints. Lexi wanted to make a birthday present for her mom and I needed to work on an illustration for the Folio Society, so it worked out quite well. We set up my "special paints" (acrylics), found some "hard paper" (illustration board), grabbed my palettes (styrofoam plates) and spent the next hour making pretty pictures together. Lexi really got into her painting and discovered that she loves mixing colors (a girl after my own heart). It was so fun to watch her concentrate on mixing and painting.

Her painting turned out really well, don't you think? Needless to say, her mom loved the painting. I loved spending time with her and wish she could be my studio buddy. Too bad she has to go to school every day.

Why yes I am a color enthusiast

Earlier I mentioned going to a 3-day intensive color theory workshop with Bill Perkins and it was AWESOME. Bill talked about color and value and edges and all sorts of other nerdy goodness.  The workshop was based on situations with live models, NOT color chips (oh man those things are boring). We painted for 8 hours each day and by the end of the 3 days, we had over 20 paintings to show for it -- needless to say my feet were super sore by the end of Saturday (being the practical person I am, I most definitely wore cute flats each day isn't of shoes that had more, um, foot support; can you blame me?). 

So here is a smattering of what I did. Each image was meant as "color sketch" instead of a "painting," so there wasn't much stress placed on the drawing. As I painted I tried to match blocks of color/value, as well as paying attention to my edges. 

Just a note, those scratch marks on the paintings aren't intentional. I thought they were dry and stacked them....and well, they weren't completely dry. Sad day, but still happy color sketches.

Studio Days

A few people have asked if painting in a studio all day gets lonely. The answer is yes, actually, it does. At times I've found myself talking...heaven forbid...to myself. But that's why you share studio space. Then when you start talking, someone is there and even if they're not actually listening or you're not actually speaking directly to them, you don't feel completely crazy.

This is my studio buddy, Bri. She sleeps on the chair, I paint at the desk; she sits on my lap and critiques my work, I throw her favorite toy back and forth. It works out well.

Prints, Prints, Prints for Sale!

Recently I've had a few requests to purchase prints of my work. Well my friends, thanks to the wonders of technology (and my recent use of the ever-popular world wide inter-web) you may now purchase prints online! Just follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Go to my etsy shop.
2. Peruse through the images.
3. If you see something you like, order it!

Easy right?

Ready for the best part? Now through Saturday, March 26th receive 20% OFF on any print! Just enter the coupon code: OPENYAY3261 at checkout.

Isn't technology the greatest?

ps - If there's an image that you'd like a print of but don't see up there, then just send me an email at leslie@lesliedukeart.com and I'll get it up there in a jiffy.